Important First Name Question!!!

[fireflower]

Let say my name is Lee Ah Lan
When apply for the visa, what should be filled out as the first name?
I know that the Last Name = Lee (100%)
(a) First Name = Ah Lan
(b) First Name = Ahlan (no space)
(c) First Name = Ah-Lan

Which one?

I ask this because my college change my first name to the (b) option, so I'm confused....
Also, I have searched online and found that if I use Ah Lan, it may cause confusion to Ang Mo because the full name will be written as Ah Lan Lee. Some Ang Mo may misinterpret Ah as first name, Lan as middle name, and Lee as last name.....

[Dominic]

It's A.

[yanno_yamster]

Yup, it's A (at least in Australia). Which country are you going to by the way?

[youngyew]

For official purposes, your surname is your last name, and all other parts of your name are your first name. If you are Tan Ah Lan, your last name is Tan and your first name is Ah Lan. If you are Grace Tan Ah Lan, your last name is Tan, and the first name is Grace Ah Lan.

For non-official purposes, sometimes people combine their first names with or without hyphen (I am Chang Yang, and I often combine it to Chang-Yang in various settings). The main reason is because in most other cultures there is only ONE word in the first name, so they presume only the first word is your first name. It happens in all kinds of places - university correspondence, bank statements, insurance companies, day-to-day correspondence with lecturers and colleagues, etc etc. Even Facebook and some email service providers call me Chang, it annoys me to no end. So to do away with annoyance, I have decided to hyphenate the two parts of the name so that they call my name properly.

p/s: As for the middle name, unless you actually specify something to be your middle name, they won't automatically assume the second word as your middle name. They would either just discard it (so that in the system you are only Ah, not Ah Lan), or include both words of "Ah Lan" in the system but call you "Ah" the next time regardless.

[henry_yew]

Actually, there had been cases where people put "Ah" as their first name and "Lan" as the middle name, with "Tan" as the last name. Therefore, it's not uncommon to see their names written as "Ah L. Tan" even though it appears weird at first. My professor kept writing his name in that manner for his homework assignments (yes, he still keeps them till today, so I'd seen them). Occasionally, even I write Guo Z. Yew in the attendance list because effectively, the lecturers just look at "Guo" and "Yew" and then they will mark you present in the system automatically.

However, in my visa, I have written my first name as "Guo Zheng". Today, quite a lot of systems allow the use of space in the First Name category, so that you can have "two" first names.

When I took the GRE, however, my name was shortened to Guozheng, despite my stating it clearly that it should be Guo Zheng. The name in my bank account was also shortened in that similar manner (the banker said that I could have spaced it out if I'd wanted to, but I made no big deal of it), but it caused me no trouble whatsoever.

[Cactus]

Suppose my full (Chinese) name is Tan Zhi Yew.

When I apply for admission to foreign universities, I realized all the American universities got my name right, i.e., they address me by "Zhi Yew" in their correspondences, whereas the British ones tend to use "Dear Zhi".

[roller]

Definitely (A), assuming that the name in your PASSPORT is LEE AH LAN.

Don't worry, it is common for the ang moh to be confused.
You will be known as Ah Lan Lee. And their letters to you will be Dear Ah, ...

At the end of the day, just make sure your degree is ok. I am not sure if it will be "Lee Ah Lan" or "Ah Lan Lee", but Malaysian employers will understand.

[yanno_yamster]

Originally Posted by roller

Don't worry, it is common for the ang moh to be confused.
You will be known as Ah Lan Lee. And their letters to you will be Dear Ah, ...

LOL at the "Dear Ah".

For all you know, the ang mohs might just end up pronouncing your name as Alan.

[henry_yew]

Originally Posted by Cactus

Suppose my full (Chinese) name is Tan Zhi Yew.

When I apply for admission to foreign universities, I realized all the American universities got my name right, i.e., they address me by "Zhi Yew" in their correspondences, whereas the British ones tend to use "Dear Zhi".

Hmmm... one of the banks put my name as Guo Yew, while another used my proper first name.

Not all organizations will comply to our naming convention, but I'd say don't let that cause a big fuss for you. My name has been butchered even in Malaysia, so I don't expect the Americans to do a better job actually.

Originally Posted by roller

Definitely (A), assuming that the name in your PASSPORT is LEE AH LAN.

Don't worry, it is common for the ang moh to be confused.
You will be known as Ah Lan Lee. And their letters to you will be Dear Ah, ...

At the end of the day, just make sure your degree is ok. I am not sure if it will be "Lee Ah Lan" or "Ah Lan Lee", but Malaysian employers will understand.

Malaysian employers have no problem with "Lee Ah Lan" or "Ah Lan Lee". They're not computers, and human beings can be flexible with things. I've seen US scrolls written with the <First Name> <Last Name> convention, so yeah, be prepared to see "Ah Lan Lee".

Sometimes, it's also possible to see such a convention, especially in records: Lee, Ah Lan.

[youngyew]

Speaking of mangling my name, I could never forgive the dean of medicine for calling my name "Chang Chang Yew" in the graduation ceremony. Even that "Chang" was pronounced by rhyming with "hang" in English.